“ Only four engineers are needed to manage 120 virtual servers. There’s no way we could have


done that without [using] virtualization.” – Chris Smith, South Central Foundation, Anchorage, AK


4


leave in the data center, the better off we’ll be,” he said.


Using Virtualization to Consolidate


Storage Starting in 2005, Dartmouth-


Hitchcock began deploying Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, which it saw as a simpler and less costly alternative to VMware software, according to McShinsky. In 2008, the medical center moved to Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V, the successor to Virtual Server. “We now have over 330 virtual


servers, or 65% of our environment. It saves money on hardware and space— more space is reserved for seeing patients,” McShinsky said. Dartmouth-Hitchcock, with its


major data center in Lebanon, NH, and smaller ones in Nashua, NH, and Bedford, NH, is using virtualization to consolidate storage as well, with several Fibre Channel storage area networks (SAN) each consisting of as many as 10 Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) StorageWorks EVA (Enterprise Virtual Array) 8000 series devices. McShinsky’s staff uses Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Data Protection Manager to manage the SANs and perform backups. Dartmouth-Hitchcock also uses


HP’s VLS (Virtual Library System) disk-based tape emulation storage, which includes a data deduplication feature that reduces the amount of data. In the move to consolidate storage, the medical center has not eliminated backup tape cartridges completely, however; those that remain are encrypted and stored off-site at a secure location. Although SAN storage offers the benefits of high throughput and the ability to manage storage volumes to assure high availability, McShinsky is


fighting to keep costs under control. “Disk is cheap, but not as cheap when it’s on a high-performance SAN,” he said. Data deduplication helps, but he is also looking at thin provisioning via Virsto Software Corp. Thin provisioning allocates storage to applications only as needed, a feature that can cut storage costs significantly. Next up is a multimillion-dollar


project that will move Dartmouth- Hitchcock from what McShinsky describes as a “homegrown” EHR application to an Epic EHR system that will be deployed on Citrix Systems Inc.’s XenApp, an application virtualization platform that can send applications to desktop computers or act as a terminal server to desktops.


Preserving Uptime The South Central Foundation


deployed VMware on Windows Server systems in 2006, and subsequently migrated to VMware ESX. “We felt it was more mature than Hyper-V. There’s almost no delay, and no downtime,” said Smith, who was particularly impressed with the ESX software’s ability to move a guest VM from one live host to another with no interruption in service. Similarly, VMware VMotion virtualized storage software lets administrators move storage volumes from one part of a SAN to another without sacrificing uptime, he noted. For virtualized storage, South


Central is using NetApp SANs in its primary and backup data centers. “Disk-to-disk backup happens several times a day,” Smith explained, adding,


“We know there’s quite a bit of savings. There is a little bit of an extra cost for software around snapshotting and easy replication of your data.” Next on the horizon is an 18- to


24-month migration to Cerner applications following a deal inked a few months ago. The applications,


which will be hosted on Citrix XenServer, run the gamut from computerized physician order entry and e-prescribing to lab work and X-rays. “We’re trying to consolidate down to a couple of key vendors like Cerner,” said Smith. Smith is further weighing different


options for a future desktop infrastructure, such as using desktop virtualization and a broad rollout of Windows 7, he said.


Can Consolidation


Cut Consumption? UPMC has 11 satellite data


centers, one of which, a 27,000-sq.-ft. operation, had 45 server racks before virtualization. Now that total is down to five racks of virtual servers. Absent that consolidation, UPMC would have had to build another data center. Overall, the UPMC virtualization project is 90% complete, according to Szmanski. UPMC is using VMWare, mainly on


IBM AIX severs with some HP and Sun Microsystems servers as well. The environment is managed by a combination of HP ServiceCenter and IBM Tivoli software. Szymanski praised his ability to take down virtual servers when necessary without having to take down a physical machine. For UPMC, using virtualization


goes hand in hand with a green IT initiative that has enabled the organization to keep its kilovolt- ampere consumption constant in the past five years. Like many of his peers, Szmanski has yet to commit to a desktop virtualization strategy, but is discussing those technologies with IBM and Microsoft.


CONNECTION


VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 2


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